Rev. David Holwick D T.U.L.I.P. #3
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 22, 2012
Genesis 6:5-6
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I. People can be pretty bad.
A. Chicago, outside an elementary school, last Sunday.
Seven teenagers beat up a 17-year-old Asian boy for three long
minutes.
Four of them were 15 years old, including a girl.
They punched him, kicked him in the face, threw him against
a wall, stole $180 of his money and took his sneakers.
The entire time they called him racial slurs.
Covered in blood, he was finally able to break away and run
for his life.
Police have been able to arrest all seven culprits.
Because the teenagers videotaped the entire assault and posted
it on YouTube.com.
But perhaps we should not be too quick to judge.
According to the Chicago Police Superintendent, the attack may
have been retaliation.
In an earlier incident, the victim, allegedly, participated in
a separate attack where some 20 teens jumped on two others
last fall. [1]
B. You don't have to go too far to find examples of badness.
1) Even many non-Christians can accept Romans 3:12 -
"There is no one who does good, not even one."
2) But just how bad are we?
a) Do we all have some bad, but mostly we are good?
1> Americans like to be optimistic about human
potential, especially our own.
2> Even Anne Frank, who later died in a Nazi
concentration camp, wrote in her diary:
"Despite everything, I believe that people are
really good at heart.
b) Are we totally bad with no possibility of good apart
from God's help?
1> This is the view of some Calvinists.
2> They say only God is good, and letting unsaved
humans have some goodness diminishes God.
C. Understanding human condition correctly is important.
1) We must be realistic about what we are if there is to be
any hope of getting better.
II. The first point for traditional Calvinism - Total Depravity.
A. All Christians believe humans are sinners.
1) It began with Adam.
a) God gave him a specific command, and he disobeyed.
b) That disobedience led to a cascade of sin.
1> They tried to hide what they did from God.
2> They blamed others for what they had done.
c) The penalty was death.
1> Ultimately, they died a physical death.
2> But they also died a spiritual death, from the
instant they disobeyed.
2) It falls upon us.
a) Romans 5:12 says:
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one
man, and death through sin, and in this way death
came to all men, because all sinned..."
Paul goes into a digression at this point but his
argument is clear.
Adam set the pattern for us.
We inherit his nature whether we like it or not.
b) We share his guilt.
c) We share his corrupted nature.
1> This is what theologians call "Original Sin."
B. The Bible presents a dim assessment of our nature.
1) Job 25:4-6 is one of my favorites:
"How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one
born of woman be pure? If even the moon is not bright
and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less man,
who is but a maggot -- a son of man, who is only a worm!"
2) Romans 3:23 is the classic statement:
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
C. Total depravity doesn't mean you are completely bad.
1) It does mean that sin pervades everything about us.
a) Our motives and thoughts and actions are all influenced
by sin.
b) Consider a glass of water, and adding one drop of
poison to it.
1> The whole glass becomes poisoned.
2> It is the same with us - even the good things we do
are tainted by our sin and selfishness.
2) Calvinists say there's one more effect - we are dead to God.
a) We cannot seek God or repent on our own.
1> Dead people cannot do anything - except in zombie
movies.
b) The essence of the gospel is that God chooses to save
the elect out of his love alone.
1> It does not depend on our response at all, according
to Calvinists.
2> Even our faith and repentance are gifts from God.
3> This is why some prefer to call this doctrine
"Total Inability" rather than "Total Depravity."
III. Is this really in the Bible?
A. We cannot find God on our own, and we don't want to.
1) Romans 8:7-8
"The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to
God's law, nor can it do so.
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."
2) 1 Corinthians 2:14
"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that
come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
to him, and he cannot understand them..."
B. God must draw us to himself.
1) He does not meet us half-way, but goes all the way to get us.
2) John 6:44 says, "No one can come to me unless the Father
who sent me draws him."
a) The word "draw" is very strong - it is used of Paul
being dragged to a prison.
1> It does not mean he will "woo" us or "entice" us.
b) John 6:65 reinforces this:
"This is why I told you that no one can come to me
unless the Father has enabled him."
3) Even our will or desire to be spiritual has been instigated
by God:
Philippians 2:13 - "It is God who works in you to will and
to act according to his good purpose."
C. God seeks and saves us when we are still alienated from him.
1) Romans 10:20 - "I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."
2) Romans 5:8 - "But God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
3) I will leave the final word with Jesus himself.
In Matthew 19:25-26, the disciples ask Jesus, "Who then
can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible."
In other words, we can be saved - but it takes a miracle.
Only God can perform such a miracle.
IV. The other side of total depravity.
A. Calvinism gives God's side of salvation.
1) Salvation is God's doing, from beginning to end.
2) God is not held captive by our meager human wills, as if
he cannot do anything until we act.
3) From God's eternal perspective, this is all true.
B. There is also the human side of salvation.
1) We live our lives from our own natural perspective.
a) It is only in hindsight, and partially, that we can look
back and see how an invisible hand has guided us.
2) Perhaps spiritually dead people cannot seek God, but he
tells normal living people to seek him.
a) In Deuteronomy 4:28-29, God tells the Jews that they
will fail in the Promised Land - and they haven't
even arrived yet!
He says they will be scattered to other nations and
worship idols.
And then he says, "BUT if from there you seek the LORD
your God, you will find him if you look for him with
all your heart and with all your soul."
b) Even Jesus tells us to "ask," "seek," and "knock."
c) It is not wrong for us to seek God.
1> Our "seeking" is not the entire picture, but it is
true for us.
3) If you feel desire in your heart to reach out to God, do so.
a) I believe God put the desire there.
b) He calls you to follow it with repentance and belief.
1> The Bible says God produces those actions as well.
2> That may be all happening in heaven, but you are
here on earth.
3> On faith, ask God to help you do it.
4) The example of the very first Christian sermon.
On the day of Pentecost, it says Peter pleaded with his
listeners.
He implored them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt
(depraved!) generation."
Now all Christians realize you cannot save yourself - God
has to do it.
But we can act to receive the good news about Jesus.
Peter is asking them to do it, and they responded with
faith.
You can as well.
V. Dead people can come to life.
Richard Speight was on a plane and took out a Bible to begin
working on a Sunday School lesson.
This caught the attention of the man sitting next to him.
However, Richard didn't want to engage in conversation.
He had work to do.
Then he noticed the man had a Bible of his own and decided
to talk with him.
The man was a new Christian who had a powerful story to tell.
Things had gone from bad to worse and then to unbearable, the
stranger said of his life.
At first it was a single drink to be sociable, then it was two,
then several.
Before long, there was a bottle in the desk drawer to make the
long afternoons more bearable.
"You wouldn't believe how much booze I could put down in a
single day," he told his seatmate.
"I would start with a juice glass full in the morning."
He spent a lot of time trying to make his new business successful,
but it went nowhere.
Eventually his wife and children, in tears, left him.
"All I wanted was my friend, the bottle," he said.
A business trip took him out of state one day.
"I was drunk, driving a rental car," he said.
He came up to an intersection and thought he had stopped, but
in his drunken state he rolled through the busy intersection.
A truck hit him broadside.
He was thrown out of that car with terrific force.
His body skidded along the pavement; all of his clothes were
torn off.
He continued his moving story.
"The next thing I remember was two medics standing over me."
They thought he was dead.
A policeman came over and felt his pulse and listened for a
heartbeat.
The policeman thought he was a goner as well.
But they decided to take him to the hospital.
The man could not make a sound.
He said, "I prayed and prayed the whole time.
I promised God that if He would help me get their attention, if
He would help me get out of this, I would never touch another
drop of alcohol again, and I would be His servant forever."
The next thing he remembered was sitting on a gurney in the
emergency room, talking to the doctor and policemen.
They were astounded, because he was not seriously injured.
After he was cleaned up, he was released.
He decided to get some rest, so he checked into a local motel.
He bought a six-pack of beer, opened a can and laid down
in bed to watch TV.
Flipping through the channels, he encountered Billy Graham
leading a crusade.
"He was looking right at me, pointing a finger," the man
recalled.
"You have made promises to God today," Dr. Graham said, "that
you haven't kept."
This hit him like another broadside.
"I buried my head in my hands," he recalled, "and leaned over,
almost touching the ground with my face.
I had admitted my weakness to myself for the very first time."
In this time of struggle he discovered answers in the Bible.
"The Holy Spirit came into my body and into my life," he said.
The Spirit gave him the strength "to open those beer cans, one by
one, and pour that beer out.
That's the hardest thing a drunk can do," he testified,
"I couldn't. The Holy Spirit did it for me."
#2751
A. This man wasn't looking for God. God found him.
1) He was a dead guy who was desperate.
2) Yet he ended up discovering the way to get victory over
the sin that was strangling his life.
B. Has God found you yet?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] “Chicago Teen Beating: 7 Charged In Brutal Attack Caught On Video,”
Huffington Post, January 17, 2012, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
2012/01/17/chicago-teen-beating-video_n_1211460.html>.
#2751 “You Have Made Promises You Haven't Kept,” Dynamic Preaching,
Winter 1993, sermon “Set Free In '93,” quoting from Richard
Speight, THE PANCAKE MAN & FRIENDS (Nashville: Dimensions for
Living, 1992), pp. 68-76.
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